Fire-door seal.



w. BARTHOLOMEW.

I I FIRE 'DOOR SEAL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 8, l9l4- v 1,250, 9o A ll, 29 -1;

' YOU ARE FIORBIDDEN m PEN rugs noon EXQCEPT -'IN CASE o FIRE.

TURN SMALL :KNOB: AND PUSH- Y 24 J u fizfiieases' I fizdzzzorx A Ziangwzwn m TED STES PATNT onrron .WILLIAM BARTHOL01VIEW,OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, nsslenon r'o 'rnox LAUNDRY MACHINERY COMPANY, Ian, A CORPORATION on NEW YORK,

' FIRE-DOOR SEAL. I

To all it may'oono ern:

Be it known that'I, WILLIAM BARTHOLO- Mnw, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and. State v fastened against ingress to the buildingbut.

are arranged to freely open outwardly, so

that persons congregated within the building may readily gain an exit therefrom in case of fire or other casualties. This requirement has, however, given rise to numerous difficulties, since such afire door obviously may be used for other purposes than that of an exit in case of danger within the building. For instance, employees use these doors and absent themselves fromtheir work without the knowledge of their employer, returning again undetected, and secret entrances are made to theaters and other buildings without the payment of admission or the consent'of the owner. Persons may also secrete themselves in buildings for purposes of theft until after the usual closinghour for work and then make their exit through the fire door without leaving any evidence of their departure.

It is, therefore, the principal object of my inventionto provide means for sealing fire doors so that they may be readily opened when a relatively moderate force is applied thereto, but not without leaving an indication'of' the opening of the door which may be readily detected. l

Another object of my invention is to pro vide a seal of the kind referred to which may be readily replaced.

A further object is to provide a seal which will be adapted to prevent injury. to the persons opening the door by the flying particles of said seal.

Other objects will beset forth and made apparent in the following specification when taken in connection with the accompanying 1 Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 11, 1917.

Application filed. May 8,1914. Serial No. 837,208.

drawings forming a part of this specification, in whichl .Figure 1 showsa .front elevation of two fire doors in closed position with my improved seal applied thereto.

Fig. 2 shows a horizontal section, taken I on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of thearrows.

.Fig. 3 shows an enlarged detail "front ele-f vation of my improved seal as the doors in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a detail section, taken on the line H of Fig. 3;

Referring tothe drawings, the numeral 10 designates a door casing having two fire doors. 11 and 12 .mounted therein in the usual manner to .swing outwardly therefrom about the side posts 10 of saidcasing. A door sill 13 is arranged beneath the doors in the. usual manner, and a subscasing or door post' His arranged between said door: sill and the top portion of, the door casing in order: to provide a lateral support for the meeting edges of said doors when they are applied to in closed position.- The doors are arranged.

to be opened or closed by the use of the ban dles 15 and 16, and are securedin closed position by the usuallatch bolt, which is operated by a knob 17. located adjacent one of said handles. It will be apparent that when it is desired to open the doors the knob maybe readily operated to release said doors and permit the swinging thereof outwardly of the door casing. a

My improved seal, which is designated generally by the numeral 18, comprises a frame or bracket 19 which is secured to the door 11 by screws or any other convenient means of fastening. The frame or bracket is madeup of two parallel side portions 20 and amend portion 21. Each portion of the frame comprises a flange 22 which is secured insertion of a door seal 25 between the vetti cally extending flanges of said brackets and the inner face of the door. The seal 25 is arranged to extend the entire combined length of the brackets 19 and 24 and on the inner side of the sub-casing or door post 14, so that the outward swinging of the doors will be prevented by the pressure of the door post against said seal, as Well as by the coaction of the" seal 25 with the flanges 23.

The seal is made up of a plate 26 of glass,

or other fragile material, and an inner sheet 27 of paper, or the like, upon which a suit able inscription can be printed to instruct users in regard to the operation of the doors. The seal is preferably placed within the brackets on the doors 11 and 12, with the papersheet 27 on the side thereof toward the interior of the building, so that the in scription written thereon will be more readily distinguishable, and so that the particles of glass, or the like, which fly about when the seal is broken will be prevented by the paper layer from causing injury to the persons opening the doors. The upper one of the brackets 2% has pivoted thereon a latch or plate 28 which extends beyond the end of the lower bracket 24 adjacent to a plate 29 carried by said last-named bracket. The latch 28 and plate 29 have registering perforations through which a lock 80 may be inserted to secure the said latch in closed position, whereby it maintains the seal 25 within the brackets 19 and 2 1 When, in case of fire or other danger within the building, it is desired to use the fire doors, the knob 17 is operated to release the bolt controlled thereby, and the doors 1 are then pushed outwardly, which, of course,

breaks the seal 25 which extends across the meeting edges of the doors. It is therefore apparent that the doors cannot be opened without breaking the seal and leaving an indication of the opening of the doors, which can be readily detected. By providing a suitable inscription on the paper layer 27 of the seal the persons frequenting the building will be warned that the doors are to be used only in case of fire, and instructedas to the operation of saiddoors when such fire or other danger does occur.

By the use of this device it is therefore obvious that the secret use of fire doors for other purposes than those for which said doors are intended will be prevented. It is further evident that after the doors have been opened in case of fire, the seal 25 may be readily replaced by a new seal.

I have thus described in detail a particular form of my invention, but it will be obvious that changes in form and proportion of parts may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention as embodied in the appended claims.

What I claim is 1-- 1. The combination with a door, of a surface in the plane of the door when closed and out of alinement with which the door swings in opening, a frame having inwardly over-hanging flanges and formed in transverse alining sections secured to said surface and to the door, a frangible plate fitting within said frame and underlying the flanges thereof, and means for locking said'plate in said frame, whereby said plate extends across the juncture ofsaid door when closed and the adjoining edge of said surface.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with a door, of a member alining with the door when closed and out of alinement with which the door swings in being opened, a seal made of frangible ma terial, means for supporting said seal across the adjacent edges of said door and member when the door is closed in position to be broken by a shearing action upon the opening of said door, and a covering of fibrousmaterial over said seal to prevent the scat tering of portions thereof when broken.

3. In a device of the class described, a door casing, a door mounted to swing away from said casing, a seal of brittle material,

and means for supporting said seal over the door casing, a pair of doors arranged to swing outwardly therefrom and away from each other, a door seal of glass or other vitreous material secured in position on said doors, and passing. over the opening and meeting edges thereof, whereby the opening of said doors will fracture said seal and means for preventing the removal of said seal by an unauthorized person.

5. In a device of the class described, a pair of swinging doors, brackets secured to said doors adjacent their meeting edges, said brackets being in alinement with each other, a seal of glass or other brittle material adapted to be inserted within said brackets to stand over the meeting edges of said doors, and means to secure said seal 'in position within said brackets.

In testimony whereof I have subscribed my name. I

WILLIAM BARTHOLOMEW. lVitnesses C. M. LEARY, D. S. MANN.

@opiee of. this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

- Washington, D. C.

4. In a device ofcthe class described, a p 

